Brandreth Cole Barbara Perch landlord rental no failure to return deposit Church Falls, Virginia

In August of 2009, I contacted Brandreth Cole, via Barbara Perch's email on Craiglst, regarding a rental property in Santa Fe, NM. On August 26, 2009, a lease was signed for the property until September 1, 2010.

The property was excellent and there were no major issues until I received the following email on August 8, 2010 from a Los Alamos National Bank employee:

Hello Cameron, I understand you are the tenant in 1333B Hickox street.  As you are probably aware it is now owned by Los Alamos National Bank.  I have scheduled to meet a locksmith there at 10 am Tuesday, August
10th for a re-key and home inspection.  It would be greatly appreciated if you could be present at some point during that time to let the locksmith and myself in the house.  At that time, as far as I know, you will be provided
with a new key.  Please reply to this email with any questions, and I can also be reached at 412-7899 or 661-2261.  Thank you for your cooperation.

At this point, I was not well aware, so I emailed Brandy/Barbara regarding the above email and I received no response.

I met with the LANB representatives and they requested we move as soon as possible, but they gave us plenty of time to do so. I have a letter from LANB, dated 8/18/2010, stating that LANB is the new property owner and any payments on the property were to be sent to them. After talking to a LANB agent, I should have sent them August's rent, instead of sending it to Ms. Cole...

After waiting the legal time Ms. Cole had to refund our deposit, I had a lawyer send her a demand letter, as she had yet to make contact.

Her response, dated September 10, 2010:

l was quite surprised to receive your demand letter ... since I was unaware he had vacated. According to the lease he had 30 days to give us written notice of his intent to vacate. His lease was being honored by the benk, according to my attorney, Wiliam Ivry. 1 now have a refrigerator and a washer/dryer that are my personal possessions which I will not be able to recover because of his vacating without giving me notice. According to the lease-his failure to notify me of the vacating, in writing, allows me to keep the security deposit. Also, I was unable to do a walk-thru, not knowing he had vacated to access damages.

I contacted legal support again and was told, due to her residency in VA, that my best bet was filing suit in district court - a cost of nearly $200 - in hope she would have to address it sometime in the next 14 years. However, this has not been the case, so I've decided a Ripoff Report was the next logical step.